Minecraft: Day One

So, the other day, I discovered that the Humble Indie Bundle guys have now released a second and third bundle.  The third one is still valid and, since I now have a job, I figured that I'd go for it.  In addition to getting DRM-free copies of the listed indie games, I also get to play Minecraft for free until August 14th.  Since Minecraft is the only one that's time-limited, I figured that I'd play it first, since the others can wait.
I bought the bundle, downloaded Minecraft, and started playing it, on Friday night.  As I'm writing this, it's Saturday night.  I figured that I'd write about my experience with the game one real-life day in.
I'm trying to play Minecraft as it was originally played, which is to say, without knowing what everything does.  Part of the fun should be in finding out what the various combinations of various things do.  After all, I could always look up later how to make things if it got to that point.  However, there are two things that I felt it imperative to look up:  how to make a torch (to keep monsters from appearing in safe areas) and how to eat food (to restore health).  In the process of looking those up, I accidentally saw how to make a workbench.
My first observation is about night.  Night is rutting annoying at first.  There are monsters everywhere, each of which has health comparable to the avatar.  Dying isn't permanent or everything, but a Minecraft avatar drops some of his stuff when he dies, and the rest vanishes, so it's a matter of wandering back to one's death point to collect what one can, then digging around for more stuff.  Once I got a hidey-hole made, with torches in it to prevent monsters from spawning there, night became more of a boredom than anything.  I go to my hidey-hole, close up the opening with dirt, and wait around for night to end.  Fortunately, I've gotten past that in two ways.  Firstly, by keeping chests and workbenches in my hidey-holes, I can craft while I wait to be able to mine and explore.  Secondly, I figured out how to make a bed, the use of which allows me to skip night.
I've also noticed that Minecraft isn't quite as addictive as it seems.  It's just one of those games where the amount of time that I seem to spend playing is less than the amount of time that passes between when I start and where I finish.
Now, I'd really like to try to make something out of metal.  I know that Minecraft has ores, so there must be some around here somewhere....